LD 1141
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Page 1 of 12 An Act To Provide Property Tax Relief for Maine Residents and Businesses and Im... Page 3 of 12
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LR 392
Item 1

 
those of the previous fiscal year by more than the maximum tax
growth target as described in section 1710-A, subsection 4, the
State Controller shall at the close of each fiscal year reserve
from the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund an amount
equal to the identified excess individual income tax revenues
and transfer that amount to the fund.

 
3.__Changes to rate structure.__The State Tax Assessor shall
adopt by rule changes to the income tax rate structure in
accordance with this section and within the financial limits
of the money available in the fund.__Specifically, the
assessor shall__proportionately reduce the individual income
tax rates to the nearest 1/10th of 1% without exceeding the
amount of money available in the fund.__Rules adopted under
this section are routine technical rules as defined in Title
5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.

 
4.__Transfer to General Fund.__The State Controller shall
transfer from the fund to the General Fund an amount certified
by the State Tax Assessor as the adjustment necessary to
offset any individual income tax revenue reduction implemented
by the assessor pursuant to subsection 3.

 
Sec. 3. 5 MRSA §1521 is enacted to read:

 
§1521. Education Funding Stabilization Fund

 
1.__Education Funding Stabilization Fund.__The Education
Funding Stabilization Fund, referred to in this section as
"the fund," is established to be used solely for meeting the
State's share of the cost of funding public education from
kindergarten to grade 12.

 
2.__Definition.__For the purposes of this section, unless
the context otherwise indicates, "funding public education
from kindergarten to grade 12" has the same meaning as
provided in Title 20-A, section 15658-A.

 
3.__Transfers to the fund.__As an equal priority with the
transfer required under section 1513, the State Controller at
the close of each fiscal year, beginning with fiscal year
2003-04, shall reserve from the unappropriated surplus of the
General Fund an amount equal to 25% of the excess of total
General Fund revenues received over accepted estimates in that
fiscal year and transfer that amount to the fund at the
beginning of the next fiscal year.__Accepted revenue estimates
may not be increased after adjournment of any First Regular
Session of the Legislature except as provided.__For the first
year of the legislative biennium, revenue estimates for the
2nd year of the biennium may be adjusted once during the
Second Regular Session


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